Flagler College men can't catch up with St. Francis in tournament final

STUART KORFHAGEStaff Writer

Published Thursday, January 05, 2006

Playing from behind is the main theme for Flagler College men's basketball team in the second half of the season.

In Wednesday's championship game of the Flagler College Tournament, the Saints started in a 10-0 hole and never led in a 90-79 loss to St. Francis (Ill.).

That's just the way things are going to be for a while as the team tries to catch up in time to compete for another Florida Sun Conference title.

The two-time defending FSC champs started the season needing to replace seven seniors and opened 2006 working senior Jonathan Sterling and redshirt freshman J.P. Clark into the lineup.

"Jonathan is a big boost," sophomore forward Bryan Borstelmann said. "We're just trying to figure out (how he fits in)."

Sterling, one of the few experienced returning players for the Saints, missed the first semester because of academics. He played in his second game of the season Wednesday night and scored a team-high 20 points in 27 minutes off the bench.

"It took a while to get into the flow," he said.

That could be said for the entire team Wednesday as the Saints (9-4) shot 37 percent in the opening half -- including 0 for 6 from 3-point range -- as they fell behind 40-27.

St. Francis (7-6) led by 19 with 12:15 left in the game before Flagler made a game of it.

Borstelmann knocked down four 3s down the stretch and finished with 16 points as Flagler struggled to come back.

Freshman Ben De La Cruz made a free throw to cut the deficit to 69-62 with 4:38 remaining, and Sterling's 3-pointer with 40.5 seconds left made it a six-point game, but that was as close as the Saints could get.

On Tuesday, Flagler rallied from an 18-point deficit to beat Gallaudet in the first round of the tournament.

That's the way Flagler might have to win games this year.

"When you're so young, there's a tendency to be inconsistent," Bo Clark said.

Adding Sterling and J.P. Clark (returning from a knee injury) to the mix in the middle of the season also adds to some of the uncertainty. It will make the team better in the long run, but the coach is hoping that it won't be too far in the future.

"We had an identity in the first semester; now we need to come up with an identity in the second semester," Bo Clark said.

Neither the players nor the coach have a great idea of how the rotation is going to go right now.

"We're still kind of searching," Clark said. "I hate to do that in January, but that's the situation.

"We'd be a better team right now if Jonathan Sterling had played the whole season."

On the plus side, the Saints are ranked No. 19 in NAIA Division II despite returning one starter (Borstelmann) and bringing along Sterling and Clark late in the season.

Freshman center De La Cruz has the makings of a star. He had 15 points and five rebounds Wednesday night.

Also, first-year forward Sam Jozenville, a junior college transfer, has been a consistent starter as well.

The playing time at the guard spots has been bounced around all season, but freshman Jon Matthews and juniors Lee Wise and Kyle Cregan have all played well at times.

By the time conference play starts Jan. 14 at Savannah College of Art and Design, the Saints hope to be playing their best basketball.

"I see us getting back to Branson, Mo. (for the national tournament)," Sterling said. "We have the talent. It's just that we have to get everybody going 110 percent the whole game."